TeaForum.org

Just placed an order on Thes Du Japon, some of their shincha offerings, a gyokuro and a few other things like a beginner kyusu. Pretty excited to dive in to Japanese tea proper.

Teafortea wrote: ↑

Mon May 08, 2023 1:47 am

I love love thesdujapon gyokuro and I'm still enjoying his last year senchas. I have stored them well and I think they taste amazing. You can't go wrong with any of them.

Hope its good. I have heard from a guy I know that also likes tea that Gyokuro was quite mind blowing for him. I'll probably wish I got more than 50g.

I am enjoying just this morning one of his new shinchas. My order arrived last week. I am always amazed how accurate Florent is with his tea description, if he says hint of lemon, hint of lemon will be there. It's always accurate:)

I ordered shincha from Den's this year as I was impressed by their sampler. The Hashiri Shincha is really nice. Good balance of umami and freshness.

I just received an order of shincha and gyokuro from O-Cha will report back as I try the shincha in this thread. Starting with Uji Shincha Kirameki, but I’ll need to tweak steeping parameters and vessel before commenting. Just opened the pack and want to let it settle from travel temperature shifts and nitrogen flush. I’ll try using Shigaraki clay kyusu by Masaki Tachi to see how it works with this shincha’ s body and astringency.

The other teas I got with my order are;
Uji Sencha Aoi
Saw Midori Sencha
Uji Gyokuro Fujitsubo
Uji Gyokuro Yume no Ukihashi

Did a group order reducing shipping costs. For 8 packs FedEx shipping to California was $38 which is very reasonable. Tea arrived fast!

Oh wow that is a steal for the shipping. France public postal office is a mess right now, package's are disappearing even with tracking number so I'm going with private companies lately. One of my orders got lost.. my friends big order never made it out of the customs. DHL and FedEx are accurate but $$.

How long do you wait before you open the teas?

Can't wait to hear about them. I'm going to do an order from o-cha soon.

Teafortea wrote: ↑

Sat May 20, 2023 3:03 pm

Oh wow that is a steal for the shipping. France public postal office is a mess right now, package's are disappearing even with tracking number so I'm going with private companies lately. One of my orders got lost.. my friends big order never made it out of the customs. DHL and FedEx are accurate but $$.

How long do you wait before you open the teas?

Can't wait to hear about them. I'm going to do an order from o-cha soon.

Yes, shipping was much more reasonable with O-Cha FedEx. Ippodo’s is more using DHL. The packs when they arrived felt room temperature, but I still waited 24hrs before opening the pack, and closing it to then steep 24hr after that.

Ok . Thx for the input

Competitive Kagoshima Shincha. Very delicious tea and indeed beautiful tea leaves as they promised.

I can report back that O-Cha’s Uji Sencha Aoi is very smooth, brothy and elegant. It’s not a super grassy green shincha, rather more about balance. Really like it. Settled on steeping it at 7g/170ml/156f/80sec in Yamada Sou 180ml Aoyu mayake kyusu, like in past years.

Finding the Uji Shincha Kirameki more challenging to get right. Thin body and slight bitterness hasn’t been tamed by Masaki Tachi shigaraki clay kyusu. Maybe this tea needs to rest. So far 6g/110ml/155f/90sec in shigaraki isn’t a match.

Shincha from Mariko, Kondo Wase.

Thes du japon harvest 2023

Really good balance of green tea and flavor. Sweet sencha, very mild astringency from 3rd infusion. Sweet after 3rd 4th 5th infusion. My top favorite! Went to order some more this morning and saw that it was sold out

Victoria wrote: ↑

Fri May 26, 2023 12:58 am

Finding the Uji Shincha Kirameki more challenging to get right. Thin body and slight bitterness hasn’t been tamed by Masaki Tachi shigaraki clay kyusu. Maybe this tea needs to rest. So far 6g/110ml/155f/90sec in shigaraki isn’t a match.

Would kobiwako clay help with bitterness may be? A friend of mine does not like green tea at all but will take it if I brew it in kobi

Teafortea wrote: ↑

Sat May 27, 2023 6:18 am

Victoria wrote: ↑

Fri May 26, 2023 12:58 am

Finding the Uji Shincha Kirameki more challenging to get right. Thin body and slight bitterness hasn’t been tamed by Masaki Tachi shigaraki clay kyusu. Maybe this tea needs to rest. So far 6g/110ml/155f/90sec in shigaraki isn’t a match.

Would kobiwako clay help with bitterness may be? A friend of mine does not like green tea at all but will take it if I brew it in kobi

Yes, that was my thought as well, to try next Junzo’s kobiwako kyusu + using less leaf/more water ratio as well. This lightly steamed shincha (asamushi) will probably do better backing off on the amount of leaf. And sure enough the bitterness has been tamed using 4g/130ml/150f/90sec in Junzo kobiwako 240ml kyusu. Much better using less leaf and cooler temp. O-Cha’s ratio 2.6g/130ml/162f/90sec uses even less leaf/water/warmer temp.

There’s a thread Chip started comparing Junzo Kobiwako vs. Tachi Shigaraki where I compared steeping Sae Midori and later just water. In those comparisons water was sweetest in Junzo’s Kobiwako but the Sencha I used better in Tachi Shigaraki. So it really depends on the tea it seems.

Nice!!

Just the other week I tried a benifuki black tea with a kobiwako teapot. that usually is a bit bitter for my taste but it was surprisingly very tame with the kobi. I read Chip's thread a while ago and thats what made me use that teapot more often. Very helpful.

Honestly I tend to just brew in whatever kyusu I am in the mood to use. I really don't think my taste buds are discerning enough to start distinguishing between clay types.

Dresden wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 4:29 am

Honestly I tend to just brew in whatever kyusu I am in the mood to use. I really don't think my taste buds are discerning enough to start distinguishing between clay types.

With certain teas like Japanese Leaf gram/ Water ml/ Temp/ Time ratios are most important factors. Teaware is hugely important to me aesthetically, the form, volume and clay can tweak certain teas just enough to make them a little better, but imo is secondary to getting steeping ratios right.